...Foreign Language Braille...

Do you speak French, Spanish, Japanese, or another foreign language? Do you know how to read and write that language? Maybe you hope to one day learn a foreign language in high school or college. There are people who are braille readers in every country. So, there are braille codes for just about every language so people can read and write in the language they speak.

Remember, there are only 6 dots that make up the braille cell. Therefore, like with the other braille codes such as Nemeth code for math and the music braille code different symbols have specific meanings. To show you how this works, let's use Spanish as our language example.

Symbols in Spanish Braille

In Spanish braille there are no contractions, the short way to write words and groups of letters. Each letter is written in braille just as it is written in print. There are braille characters for each letter that is accented in Spanish. Look at the accented letters in the table below and the braille symbols for them.

Braille

Letter

Letter Name

á

a acute

é

e acute

í

i acute

ó

o acute

ú

u acute

ü

u with dieresis

ñ

n with tilde

There are also symbols for the marks of punctuation used in Spanish.

¿ ? (to be placed before and at the end of question or word)

¡ ! (to be placed before and at the end of sentence or word)

The other marks of punctuation like the period
and comma
are the same as they are in the English literary braille code.

What Does This Say?

Using the braille alphabet and the Spanish symbols from above you can read and write Spanish braille. Look at the sentence below.

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

Here's an example of Spanish braille:

¿Que hora es por favor, señor?

Do you see how the "¿" is brailled
and so is the "?" at the end of the statement. The "ñ" is brailled
.

If you or one of your classmates is blind and
taking a foreign language class, such as Spanish, then you'll need your
books, worksheets and tests in Spanish braille. The
Teacher of Students
with Visual Impairments (TVI) will braille
the materials or arrange to have them brailled for you. The TVI isn't
going to teach the Spanish to you. You'll learn it from the Spanish teacher
just like everyone else. Many people who are braille readers enjoy learning
other languages and traveling to the countries where those languages are spoken.